The Phenix guide to animal euthanasia

Euthanasia of animals is a veterinary act whose difficulty is evident at many levels: it generates sadness, if not distress, in the owner; it ruins all hopes of a possible cure for the veterinarian; its practical realization is never easy and requires a great level of professionalism from the practitioner. The "Phenix" site was conceived by Qualityvet to help veterinary practitioners. Thanks to an interactive information that includes both reglementary and technical advice, together with a few interesting returns from the field, the "Phenix" guide targets every animal species, whether pet animals or rent animals. For each animal species, it takes into consideration its pecularities during the three successive phases: before- during- and after euthanasia. Its clear presentation allows the practitioner to rapidly access the informatioon he is looking for.L’euthanasie des animaux est un acte vétérinaire dont la difficulté s’exprime à de nombreux niveaux : il génère tristesse, voire désarroi chez le détenteur de l’animal, il anéantit les espoirs de guérison pour le vétérinaire, sa réalisation est toujours délicate et requière, de la part de celui qui doit la pratiquer, un grand professionnalisme. C’est pour aider le praticien que Qualitévet a conçu le site « Phénix ». Grâce à une information interactive sous la forme d’une liste de conseils pratiques touchant à la fois au réglementaire et au technique et agrémenté de quelques retours d’expérience très pédagogiques, le guide « Phénix » s’intéresse à toutes les espèces : animaux de compagnie et animaux de rente. Il décrit les particularités pour chacune d’elles au cours des trois phases chronologiques : avant, pendant et après l’euthanasie. Sa présentation très claire permet au praticien d’accéder très rapidement au conseil qui lui est nécessaire

COVID-19 symptoms at hospital admission vary with age and sex: results from the ISARIC prospective multinational observational study

Background: The ISARIC prospective multinational observational study is the largest cohort of hospitalized patients with COVID-19. We present relationships of age, sex, and nationality to presenting symptoms. Methods: International, prospective observational study of 60 109 hospitalized symptomatic patients with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 recruited from 43 countries between 30 January and 3 August 2020. Logistic regression was performed to evaluate relationships of age and sex to published COVID-19 case definitions and the most commonly reported symptoms. Results: ‘Typical’ symptoms of fever (69%), cough (68%) and shortness of breath (66%) were the most commonly reported. 92% of patients experienced at least one of these. Prevalence of typical symptoms was greatest in 30- to 60-year-olds (respectively 80, 79, 69%; at least one 95%). They were reported less frequently in children (≤ 18 years: 69, 48, 23; 85%), older adults (≥ 70 years: 61, 62, 65; 90%), and women (66, 66, 64; 90%; vs. men 71, 70, 67; 93%, each P < 0.001). The most common atypical presentations under 60 years of age were nausea and vomiting and abdominal pain, and over 60 years was confusion. Regression models showed significant differences in symptoms with sex, age and country. Interpretation: This international collaboration has allowed us to report reliable symptom data from the largest cohort of patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19. Adults over 60 and children admitted to hospital with COVID-19 are less likely to present with typical symptoms. Nausea and vomiting are common atypical presentations under 30 years. Confusion is a frequent atypical presentation of COVID-19 in adults over 60 years. Women are less likely to experience typical symptoms than men

Devolution

In Devolution we are acknowledging the robots as machines and in doing so we are also exploring the mechanical, machine-like function of the human body. This, as well as the zoomorphic potential of bodies. By distorting the body away from an upright pedestrian orientation and challenging the Cartesian view of the body, I’ve been trying to posit humans as animals, which of course we are. There is also something very creature-like about Louis-Philippe’s previous robotic work, so it really provided the cue for me to head in this direction. I’ve been working with the dancers on exploring choreographic relationships that respond to ecosystem processes: territoriality, parasitism, predation, symbiosis, senescence, birth, death and growth, which has included a series of discussions with a local biologist, Steve Griffiths. As performing entities, the robots are given equal status to the human bodies in the work, albeit with some major operational differences. I haven’t tried to conceptually separate robots and humans as different ‘species’ but have been interested in the collision and confluence of the two. Let’s see what happens when we collide these operating systems—that sort of thing. It’s as much an experiment in morphology and function as anything else

Impact of perinatal over-nutrition on the developing sweet/fatty taste and the ontogeny of brain reward pathway, from birth to sexual maturity in rat

National audienc

Consuming a balanced diet from weaning reverses the inappropriate food preferences in offspring of low protein-diet fed dams but modifies the glutamatergic and dopaminergic circuits in hypothalamus and reward pathway

National audienc

Consuming a balanced diet from weaning reverses the programming of food preferences in offspring of Western-Diet-fed rat dams

National audienc

Perinatal Western Diet Consumption Leads to Profound Plasticity and GABAergic Phenotype Changes within Hypothalamus and Reward Pathway from Birth to Sexual Maturity in Rat

This article is part of the Research Topic Early Life Origins of Obesity and Type 2 Diabetes.International audiencePerinatal maternal consumption of energy dense food increases the risk of obesity in children. This is associated with an overconsumption of palatable food that is consumed for its hedonic property. The underlying mechanism that links perinatal maternal diet and offspring preference for fat is still poorly understood. In this study, we aim at studying the influence of maternal high-fat/high-sugar diet feeding [western diet (WD)] during gestation and lactation on the reward pathways controlling feeding in the rat offspring from birth to sexual maturity. We performed a longitudinal follow-up of WD and Control offspring at three critical time periods (childhood, adolescence, and adulthood) and focus on investigating the influence of perinatal exposure to palatable diet on (i) fat preference, (ii) gene expression profile, and (iii) neuroanatomical/architectural changes of the mesolimbic dopaminergic networks. We showed that WD feeding restricted to the perinatal period has a clear long-lasting influence on the organization of homeostatic and hedonic brain circuits but not on fat preference. We demonstrated a period specific evolution of the preference for fat that we correlated with specific brain molecular signatures. In offspring from WD fed dams, we observed during childhood the existence of fat preference associated with a higher expression of key gene involved in the dopamine (DA) systems; at adolescence, a high-fat preference for both groups, progressively reduced during the 3 days test for the WD group and associated with a reduced expression of key gene involved in the DA systems for the WD group that could suggest a compensatory mechanism to protect them from further high-fat exposure; and finally at adulthood, a preference for fat that was identical to control rats but associated with profound modification in key genes involved in the.-aminobutyric acid network, serotonin receptors, and polysialic acid-NCAM-dependent remodeling of the hypothalamus. Altogether, these data reveal that maternal WD, restricted to the perinatal period, has no sustained impact on energy homeostasis and fat preference later in life even though a strong remodeling of the hypothalamic homeostatic and reward pathway involved in eating behavior occurred. Further functional experiments would be needed to understand the relevance of these circuits remodeling

Maternal Western Diet” feeding of rat dams leads to profound plasticity and GABAergic phenotype changes within reward pathway from birth to sexual maturity in the offspring

National audienc

Impact of an unbalanced diet on the acquisition of food preferences and the development of reward circuits in rat

International audienc